Bringing Generations Together, One “Gol” at a Time: A Research Perspective on the World Cup

Who would have thought that in 90 minutes you could ricochet from absolute joy, to extreme anxiety, and back to joy, and end in tears (and not always the happy kind), while losing your voice in the process? Soccer can do that to you.

“La pasión del fútbol” is contagious; some even say soccer is a religion. The World Cup is the most-watched sporting event on Earth. Soccer is growing in popularity in the U.S.; it has surpassed the Super Bowl and the Olympics in popularity, generating millions of mentions on social media sites and hundreds of millions of viral video views. The USA-Portugal game attracted 24.7 million viewers across two television networks, ESPN and Univision. The ESPN audience alone — 18.2 million viewers — set a record as the largest to watch a soccer game on U.S. television. The World Cup is a stage on which countries from across the globe come together. The sport of fútbol itself is a great excuse for people of all ages, cultures, and countries to come together, whether it is by watching or playing the sport.

After four weeks, the World Cup comes to an end, with Germany and Argentina playing in the final match on Sunday, July 13th. Throughout the event, we’ve seen great (and unexpected) successes from countries like Colombia and Costa Rica. We have seen players emerge as stars, like Guillermo Ochoa from Mexico and James Rodriguez from Colombia. As Latinos, families and communities, we have come together to celebrate and take pride in all of the successes of our “home countries,” and have been immersed in multiculturalism. While seeing our favorite teams eliminated saddens us, seeing the U.S.-born children in our families proudly wear their soccer jerseys to cheer for our home countries warms our hearts. We know that these children are building their own cultural identities based on traditions that were passed on to us by our parents. And we know that no matter where they are, young and old, whenever our teams play again, we will come together to celebrate, one “GOL” at a time.